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A Bold New Proposal for Matching High-Technology People and Professions

Over the years, the problem of finding the right person for the right job
has consumed thousands of worker-years of research and millions of
dollars of funding.  This is particularly true for high-technology
organizations where talent is scarce and expensive.  Recently, however,
years of detailed study of the finest minds in the field of psychoindustrial
interpersonnel optimization have resulted in the development of a simple
foolproof test to determine the best match between personality and
profession.  Now, at last, people can be infallibly assigned to the jobs for
which they are truly best suited.

CLASSIFICATION GUIDELINES

Mathematicians hunt elephants by going to Africa, throwing out everything
that is not an elephant, and catching one of whatever is
left.

Experienced mathematicians will attempt to prove the existence of at least
one unique elephant before proceeding to step 1 as a subordinate
exercise.  Professors of mathematics will prove the existence of at least
one unique elephant and then leave the detection and capture of an
actual elephant as an exercise for their graduate students.

Computer scientists hunt elephants by exercising Algorithm A:
     1.  Go to Africa.
     2.  Start at the Cape of Good Hope.
     3.  Work northward in an orderly manner, traversing the continent
         east and west.
     4.  During each traverse pass,
        (a) Catch each animal seen,
        (b) Compare each animal caught to a known elephant,
        (c) Stop when a match is detected.

Experienced computer programmeA BOLD NEW PROPOSAL FOR MATCHING HIGH-TECHNOLOGY PEOPLE AND PROFESSIONS

Over the years, the problem of finding the right person for the right job
has consumed thousands of worker-years of research and millions of
dollars of funding.  This is particularly true for high-technology
organizations where talent is scarce and expensive.  Recently, however,
years of detailed study of the finest minds in the field of psychoindustrial
interpersonnel optimization have resulted in the development of a simple
foolproof test to determine the best match between personality and
profession.  Now, at last, people can be infallibly assigned to the jobs for
which they are truly best suited.

CLASSIFICATION GUIDELINES

Mathematicians hunt elephants by going to Africa, throwing out everything
that is not an elephant, and catching one of whatever is
left.

Experienced mathematicians will attempt to prove the existence of at least
one unique elephant before proceeding to step 1 as a subordinate
exercise.  Professors of mathematics will prove the existence of at least
one unique elephant and then leave the detection and capture of an
actual elephant as an exercise for their graduate students.

Computer scientists hunt elephants by exercising Algorithm A:
     1.  Go to Africa.
     2.  Start at the Cape of Good Hope.
     3.  Work northward in an orderly manner, traversing the continent
         east and west.
     4.  During each traverse pass,
        (a) Catch each animal seen,
        (b) Compare each animal caught to a known elephant,
        (c) Stop when a match is detected.

Experienced computer programmers modify Algorithm A by placing a known
elephant in Cairo to ensure that the algorithm will terminate.

Assembly language programmers prefer to execute Algorithm A on their hands
and knees.

Engineers hunt elephants by going to Africa, catching gray animals at
random, and stopping when any one of them weighs within + or - 15% of
any previously observed elephant.

Economists don't hunt elephants, but they believe that if elephants are paid
enough, they will hunt themselves.

Statisticians hunt the first animal they see N times and call it an
elephant.

Consultants don't hunt elephants, and many have never hunted anything at
all, but they can be hired by the hour to advise those people who do.

Operations research consultants can also measure the correlation of hat si